Our work

Why we’re needed

Comprehensive studies have shown that the UK is one of the most unforgiving countries in the developed world when it comes to the literacy of economically disadvantaged families.

Here, how well you read has a direct bearing on how well you do in life. For various reasons, children from the poorest families are less likely to have books, less likely to read with their parents and less likely to read for pleasure. Not only are they more likely to fall behind in their studies as a result, they fall behind in their lives. Amongst developed nations, it is the UK that shows the clearest link between poor literacy and unemployment. For most youngsters there is no way back, because much of what support there is doesn’t reach its target. We leave our most vulnerable children behind. For further details see “Difficult reading?” (below), where you can download reports and read extracts from several studies.

Doorstep Library exists to help as many of these vulnerable families as we can. We believe in the power of words to take children places, not just in their imagination, but in their lives. We want to see a world where all children can thrive in homes in which books are celebrated and a love of reading is embraced.

“To be literate is to become liberated from the constraints of dependency. To be literate is to gain self-confidence. To be literate is to become self-assertive. Literacy provides access to written knowledge – and knowledge is power. In a nutshell, literacy empowers.”Kassam, Y. (1994). Who benefits from illiteracy? Literacy and empowerment.

“Difficult reading?” – startling facts

Here you will find links to or PDFs of several reports which lay out the true state of child literacy in our country, and its devastating effects both on individuals and the nation. We pick out several key quotes and facts below.

Read on. Get On. – How reading can help children escape poverty

“To our shame, thousands of children leave primary school each year unable to read well enough to enjoy reading and to do it for pleasure, despite the best efforts of teachers around the country…”

“We know that young children who enjoy reading independently will have had the door opened to new discoveries and wide interests, to knowledge, creativity, and confidence. Reading is the critical route to other subjects as well as a provider of wider opportunities for giving more and getting more from life and work.”

“However for those children living in the poorest families and the most deprived communities the situation is even worse. Four out of ten children on free school meals are not able to read well by the age of 11.”

“For any of these children, entering secondary school without the ability to read well can engender a crippling lack of confidence and confusion. This in turn can lead to humiliation and despair at precisely the moment when raised aspirations and the enjoyment of achievement should be creating a positive future for every child. This is the unacceptable consequence of child poverty in the UK which is exacting both a life sentence on many of these children and a terrible toll on our society. The recently launched Fair Education Alliance highlights the gap in literacy and numeracy by the age of 11 as one of the most critical challenges for the UK.”

State of the Nation and Impact Report

“The foundation for literacy skills is laid in the first years, months and even weeks of life. Inequalities in these experiences are frequently related to socioeconomic status.”

“By age five, children from low-income households are over a year behind in vocabulary.”

“Poor literacy is also frequently intergenerational: parents with lower literacy skills often lack the confidence and skill to help their children with reading and writing, which reinforces the cycle of disadvantage.”

“For all children, the quality of the home learning environment is more important for intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income. In other words, what parents do to stimulate their young children’s development is more important than who they are.”

“The more children’s books, either owned or borrowed, there are in the home, the better a child’s reading and language skills.”

Close

Save the Children Report, Too Young to Fail

Low-income families are falling behind at school by the age of 7. [It is] “a problem of consistent and persistent failure over 30 years to address skill development at the lower end of the attainment range,” said Chris Husbands, Director of the Institute of Education, University of London.

The Reading Street Report by Egmont, April 2013.
“Somehow reading has taken on the mantle of being task-driven rather than pleasure-driven. It has become seen as a hard skill.” Alison David, Consumer Insight Director at Egmont.

The report points out that reading is being seen as a “learning tool” and the emphasis is on learning to read rather than the “joyful immersion in stories”. “Even at the age of five, reading is task based. It’s not about fun. In the quest for achievement, the idea of reading as a pleasurable activity is getting lost.”

Close

Books Beyond Bedtime Report

Children who read outside of class are 13 times more likely to read above the expected level for their age. Research showed that among 1000 parents surveyed with kids 6-11 years, almost half (44%) are never read to at home.

Getting in Early: Primary schools and early intervention

“Research shows that educational disadvantage becomes entrenched by age 11. Early school years (especially between 4-8) represent the last critical window of opportunity in which change is possible.”

“Research shows that in parenting it’s not who you are, it’s what you do that counts. Even when families live in poverty, children can achieve well where parents are helped to be responsive to their children and committed to their education.”

60% of children in the lowest reading attainment group at age 10 had parents with low literacy levels. “We need to make it possible for children from poorer families to access the kind of help that transforms not only literacy and numeracy skills but also their attitudes to learning.”

“Reading for pleasure has been revealed as the most important indicator of the future success of a child (OECD, 2002), and improvements in literacy, at any point in life, can have a profound effect on an individual.”

“Socio-economic background and many other factors may be outside the control of an individual. However, what matters is that for many, addressing literacy skills is a key first step in beginning to address and helping to overcome other related factors that lock individuals into a cycle of disadvantage.”

“To be literate is to become liberated from the constraints of dependency. To be literate is to gain a voice and to participate meaningfully and assertively in decisions that affect one’s life. To be literate is to gain self-confidence. To be literate is to become self-assertive. To be literate is to become politically conscious and critically aware, and to demystify social reality. Literacy enables people to read their own world and to write their own history. Literacy makes people aware of their basic human rights and enables them to fight for and protect their rights. Literacy enables people to have a greater degree of control over their own lives. Literacy helps people to become self-reliant and resist exploitation and oppression. Literacy provides access to written knowledge – and knowledge is power. In a nutshell, literacy empowers.” Kassam (1994: 33)

“Poor literacy rates and low aspirations can become a vicious circle that feed into each other and contribute towards fewer life opportunities. Aspirations are also hugely important because the cycle of underachievement that low aspirations causes is too often passed on to the next generation, where poor literacy and low aspirations are replicated.”

“Only 50% of men and women with very low literacy agreed that they were ‘satisfied with life so far’, compared with 75-80% for all other literacy levels.”